AS I LEARN HOW TO PRAY
Today was quite a day. I had the privilege of hearing Joanne Jung give a talk at a women's luncheon. Her insight on prayer was powerful. She suggested that if surveyed, most people would say they probably spend most of their time on the "Supplication" step (asking God for things, essentially) of the Adoration - Confession - Thanksgiving - Supplication (ACTS) model of prayer. And if that is the case, it could result in a very distorted view of God as a genie or Santa Claus figure, a god who serves us.
Joanne told us about an exercise she has used to challenge her students: sending them outside the classroom to pray for fifteen minutes, with the stipulation that they must only pray A, C, and T…but not S. The result was often that students would realize how unfamiliar they were with practicing A, C, and T in prayer, some not knowing how to Adore, Confess, or give Thanks to God, or how to do them without quickly jumping to S. As I thought this through, I realized that I am right there with these students, especially with Adoration and Confession. I certainly appreciate God's greatness but I can see that I don't know how to spend time with the Lord, my Lord, in complete adoration. Neither do I spend much time in confession. With the thought in my mind that He already knows my sins, I tend to gloss over them quickly, if at all, instead of spending time in the humility of spelling my sins out before my God. Joanne pointed out that starting off with Adoration instantly puts us in the right place before our God, correcting our distorted view, showing us our need to serve God, not the reverse.
So the "action steps" I've decided on are:
1) to practice developing in Adoration and Confession to my God
2) to continue searching for worship music I enjoy (most contemporary worship music does not feel like "heart music" to me, though I enjoy hymns)
3) to try to learn how to give adoration like the psalmists did. Any suggestions for psalms?
4) to learn from the prayers of the Puritans and of course from the apostle Paul. They certainly knew how to pray. I want to desire to "pray until you pray." I have a long way to go.
The second part of this big day was that I met with a mobilizer from OMF who gave me further food for thought. I think I'll share about that at a later date.
If you would like to pray for me...
To mature in my prayer life
To discover whether I actually have a passion for teaching English
To love the people around me, especially when it is difficult or outside my comfort zone
Photo ©saltyandbright (New Mexico)